China will pump nearly £235 billion into pollution reduction and energy saving
schemes before 2015 in a bid to clean up its notoriously toxic environment.

The spending plan, part of the country’s latest 2011-2015 five year plan, was approved in July at a meeting of China’s cabinet-like State Council chaired by outgoing prime minister Wen Jiabao.

The plan, unveiled this week by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), outlines 10 major projects aimed at cleaning up the environment and slashing energy consumption in a country that became the world’s top energy consumer in 2009, overtaking the United States.

Some 816 billion yuan will be spent fighting water and air pollution, cleaning up rivers and targeting “key” polluting industries including iron, steel and cement producers and power stations.

Another 982 billion yuan will go on four energy saving initiatives which include plans to subsidise energy efficient homes and vehicles and call on steel producers and coal-fired power plants to cut their energy use. Energy consumption should fall by 16 per cent per unit of GDP between now and 2015, according to the plan.

In a statement the NDRC said the projects should see coal consumption cut by 300m tonnes each year and reduce pollution emissions by up to 10 per cent.

In an interview posted on the NDRC website, an anonymous official said the plan would “dramatically improve energy efficiency and significantly reduce emissions of pollutants”.

“Promoting energy conservation and speeding up the building of a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society is a significant strategic task for [the country’s] economic and social development,” the NDRC representative added.

The announcement follows a series of high-profile environmental protests through which campaigners forced local governments to back-away from controversial projects they feared would pollute the environment and harm public health.

Ma Jun, one of China’s leading environmentalists, said Beijing was making progress in its fight against pollution but the “sheer scale” of economic growth meant the situation remained critical.

“We need to give credit: a lot of effort has been made and the government is trying for the first time in the last five year plan to introduce pollution reduction. According to the statistics there has been some improvement – reductions have been achieved,” said Mr Ma, director of China’s Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.

“Having said that, in general I think people recognise that the issue is far from being resolved. In many parts [of China] it’s not getting better, it is actually getting worse. China is still going through this massive [process of] industrialisation and urbanisation. [You] try to reduce the pollution discharge but in the meantime the growth of the economy simply brings more extra pollution to deal with.”